HEIDI
with the tears in them had gone to her heart. All at once she burst into tears and started running as fast as she could after the departing figure, calling out in broken tones: “Doctor! doctor!”
He turned round and waited till the child reached him. The tears were streaming down her face and she sobbed out: “I will come to Frankfurt with you now at once, and I will stay with you as long as you like, only I must just run back and tell grandfather.”
The doctor laid his hand on her and tried to calm her excitement. “No, no, dear child,” he said kindly, “not now; you must stay for the present under the fir trees, or I should have you ill again. But hear now what I have to ask you. If I am ever ill and alone, will you come then and stay with me? May I know that there would then be some one to look after me and care for me?”
“Yes, yes, I will come the very day you send for me, and I love you nearly as much as grandfather,” replied Heidi, who had not yet got over her distress.
And so the doctor again bid her good-bye and started on his way, while Heidi remained looking after him and waving her hand as long as a speck of him could be seen. As the doctor turned for the last time and looked back at the waving Heidi and the sunny mountain, he said to himself, “It is good to be up there, good for body and soul, and a man might learn how to be happy once more.”
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